1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to a dehumidifying apparatus of an air conditioner and a control method thereof by which cooling and heating are changed according to room and outdoor temperature without dropping the room temperature but only removing humidity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, an air conditioner is classified into various kinds according to function and unit construction, where the air conditioner can be classified according to function into: (a) selective heating and cooling, (b) cooling and dehumidifying, (c) heating only or (d) cooling only, and can be classified according to unit construction into: (a) an integral type to be installed at a window and the like for integral cooling and radiating purpose, or (b) a separation type comprised of a cooling apparatus disposed inside a room and a radiating and a compressing apparatus disposed outside.
The separation type of air conditioner typically includes a multi-purpose type comprised of one outdoor unit and more than two indoor units for air conditioning a plurality of room spaces.
This separation type air conditioner is provided, as illustrated in FIG. 1, with one indoor unit 10, and an outdoor unit 20, both being operated in one system and selectively operated for either cooling or heating, according to need.
The outdoor unit 20 includes a compressor 30, an outdoor heat exchanger 40, a capillary tube 50, and an indoor heat exchanger 60.
The indoor heat exchanger 60 includes an inlet distributer 70, outlet consolidator 80 and first, second and third coolant lines 61, 62 and 63.
The first, second and third coolant lines 61, 62 and 63 have respective coolant inlets 61a, 62a and 63a and respective coolant outlets 61b, 62b and 63b, where the coolant outlets 61b, 62b and 63b are connected to respective outlet dividers 74, 75 and 76 and coolant flowing in the respective outlet dividers 74, 75 and 76 forms a coolant cycle.
In the air conditioner thus constructed, a coolant cycle is formed as shown by solid arrows in FIG. 1, which coolant cycle is the same for both a cooling operation and a dehumidifying operation.
First of all, when gaseous coolant of high temperature and high pressure discharged out of the compressor 30 at the outdoor unit 20 is infused into the outdoor heat exchanger 40, the outdoor heat exchanger 40 forcibly cools and condenses the gaseous coolant, and liquefied coolant of low temperature and high pressure condensed by the outdoor heat exchanger 40 is infused into the capillary tube 50.
The liquefied coolant infused into the capillary tube 50 is expanded to frostless coolant of low temperature and low pressure and is conducted to the heat exchanger 60 and evaporated, where the coolant removes heat from the air blown by an indoor fan to cool the room air. The cool air is discharged indoors to perform cooling or dehumidifying operations. The gaseous coolant of low pressure and low temperature cooled by the indoor heat exchanger 60 is again infused into the compressor 30 to be changed into coolant gas of high pressure and high temperature and repeats coolant cycle thus described.
The indoor unit 10 drives the indoor fan at a speed according to an air amount established by a user to thereby perform a cooling operation, but reduces the air speed of the indoor fan when performing a dehumidifying operation.
However, there is a problem in a conventional dehumidifying operation method thus described in that a user feels much colder due to lower room temperature during a dehumidifying operation in the rainy season when it is humid and the dehumidifying efficiency is reduced due to much lower temperature at the indoor heat exchanger 60.
Still worse, the room temperature cannot be upwardly adjusted because the room temperature cannot be established by the user during the conventional dehumidifying operation, even though the user wishes to perform the dehumidifying operation at increased room temperature.